Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Assessing the effectiveness of Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 October 2004 on the cooperation between national authorities responsibles for the enforcement of consumer protection laws (the Regulation on consumer protection cooperation)

To sustain economic growth in the EU, the Commission has set down its ambitions to unleash the potential of cross-border consumer markets, both online and offline, in the Digital Single Market Strategy and the Single Market Strategy adopted in 2015. As first steps, the Commission proposed to complete the EU legislative framework by addressing remaining regulatory gaps regarding digital content contracts and the online sales of goods. It launched actions to assess the role of platforms, geographical sales restrictions and the impact of the collaborative economy. It also stressed the need to support legislation with effective and consistent enforcement, to ensure that internal market rules deliver the intended economic benefits for the EU economy.

Evidence however shows that compliance with consumer rules is still an issue that impacts on consumers' and traders' trust in cross-border markets in the EU. Enforcement of consumer law is primarily the responsibility of Member States. However, especially in the digital environment where transactions know no borders, it is only through cooperation that national authorities can effectively address consumer law infringements taking place in a cross-border context. The Consumer Protection Cooperation Regulation (CPC Regulation) was adopted in 2004 to create a formal cooperation framework between national enforcement authorities, to address problematic practices with a cross-border dimension.

Article 21a of the CPC Regulation requires the Commission to assess in a report to the European Parliament and to the Council, 10 years after the adoption of the Regulation, its operational mechanisms, its Annex and its effectiveness. It invites the Commission to make a legislative proposal, if appropriate, to amend the Regulation. As required by this Article, the Commission carried out a thorough assessment of the functioning of the CPC Regulation, the outcomes of which are presented in this Report. Since the assessment pointed out the need to improve and modernise the CPC Regulation a detailed impact assessment of various possible options was performed in 2015 to assess the need for a legislative proposal to amend the CPC Regulation.

ESO: Background information: Commission proposes new e-commerce rules to help consumers and companies reap full benefit of Single Market http://www.europeansources.info/record/commission-launches-e-commerce-package/

---